Joseph Murphy

Joe Murphy was born in Lynn

Lynn, Massachusetts

Lynn is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 89,050 at the 2000 census. An old industrial center, Lynn is home to Lynn Beach and Lynn Heritage State Park and is about north of downtown Boston.-17th century:...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 in the United States of America in March 1895 the son of Irish parents who subsequently returned home to their native Cork City when Joe was a young child. He was educated at Greenmount National Schools and on leaving school was employed by Cork County Council

Cork County Council

Cork County Council is the local authority which is responsible for County Cork in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment. The head of the council has the title of Cathaoirleach...

.

He had a keen interest in the Gaelic sports

Gaelic games

Gaelic games are sports played in Ireland under the auspices of the Gaelic Athletic Association. The two main games are Gaelic football and hurling...

 of hurling

Hurling

Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...

, Gaelic football

Gaelic football

Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...

 and road bowling

Irish Road Bowling

Irish road bowling is an ancient sport. It is centered in Ireland - primarily in County Armagh and County Cork. However, it also has players in Boston, Massachusetts; Cambridge, New York, and Bennington, Vermont, vicinity; Traverse City, Michigan; the Bronx, New York; New Zealand; Asheville, North...

.

Murphy joined the Irish Volunteers

Irish Volunteers

The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...

 in 1917 and became a member of H Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade of which he was an active member. He was involved in numerous attacks on British police and military posts including a well publicised attack on Farran

Farran

Farran is a village in County Cork, Ireland, in the parish of Ovens. It lies on the southside of the River Lee. Farran is west from Cork City on the N22 road.It has a primary school, rainbow creche and Montessori and Farran Montessori school...

 police barracks a few miles west of Cork city.

Murphy was arrested by British forces on 15 July 1920 and was imprisoned in Cork Jail. With a large group of prisoners at the jail he commenced a hunger strike in conjunction with the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence McSwiney. Another Cork hunger striker Michael Fitzgerald

Michael Fitzgerald (Irish Republican)

Michael Fitzgerald was a member of the Irish Republican Army who died on Hunger strike at Cork Jail in October 1920.A native of Ballyoran, Fermoy, County Cork, Fitzgerald was educated at the Christian Brothers School in the town and subsequently found work as a mill worker in the locality...

 also died.

Joe Murphy died after seventy-six days without food on 25 October 1920 and was buried in the republican plot

Republican plot

In Ireland, a republican plot is a cemetery plot where combatants or members of various Irish republican organisations are buried in a common grave, as opposed to being buried with family members. These plots may often also hold the bodies of casualties of earlier 19th and 20th-century campaigns by...

 at St. Finbarr's Cemetery

St. Finbarr's Cemetery

St. Finbarr's Cemetery in Cork, Ireland, is the city's largest and one of the oldest cemeteries still in use. Located on the Glasheen Road, it was first opened in the mid 19th century....

, Cork.

In the late 1940s Cork City Council

Cork City Council

Cork City Council is the local authority which is responsible for the city of Cork and its immediate hinterland in Ireland. The Council is responsible for Housing and Community, Roads and Transportation, Urban planning and Development, Amenity and Culture, and Environment...

 built a large new housing estate at Ballyphehane

Ballyphehane

Ballyphehane is a suburb in the south of Cork in Ireland. It is one of the oldest suburbs in Cork and was created as part of a post-World War II initiative to create a model community in Cork. Between 1948 and 1993, a total of 11 housing schemes totaling 1,316 dwellings were built by Cork...

. Most of the roads in the new estate were named after prominent figures in the Irish War of Independence including local figures and one of these thoroughfares was named Joe Murphy Road in his honour as it was quite close to his home at Lower Pouladuff Road.

Reference:

• Cork Jail Memorial Souvenir (pamphlet), 1948, Cló na Laoí (The Lee Press), Cork.